The Psychology of Safety with regards to Confined Space Entry

The Psychology of Safety with
regards to Confined Space Entry
Chris Goulart MS, CSP, ARM, CDT
Director of Consulting Services

This Session Will
Seek to explore the concept of Human Risk Taking
Provide an overview of the psychology of safety
Describe why employees work unsafely and enter
confined spaces improperly
Discuss strategies and methods to enhance
workplace safety in the most effective manner
possible

This session will NOT
Discuss discipline as a viable option
Quote numbers, statistics, or specific
exposures
Provide any advice about the technical
aspects of Grain Bin Entry
Cover actions during CSE rescues and
retrievals

Your organization has policies and
procedures regarding CSE???
Generally, plans and policies are well
written
Often they are canned or out of the box
Sometimes specific to the company or even
to the particular confined space
SO WHY ARE THESE POLICIES OFTEN NOT
FOLLOWED?

HUMAN RISK TAKING
Discipline is generally ineffective at
preventing Confined Space Entry (CSE)
incidents, injuries, and fatalities?
WHY???
• People don’t want to get hurt
• A huge percentage of events involve
rescue situations
• It is an absolute guarantee that NO ONE
thinks “it” will happen to them

Why do people put themselves at risk?
It’s all about the consequences (more about
that later)
A belief that when bad things happen to
others it is somehow their fault and a
converse belief that when bad things
happen to us, it is just bad luck
A sincere desire to help out without serious
consideration of the risks

Why do people REALLY put themselves
at risk???
Job pressure
Safety requires effort
It has never happened before
A lack of a solid “Safety Culture”
Peer pressure
A desire to assist a distressed employee

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SAFETY
What are the two most fundamental
concepts when it comes to motivating
employees safety???
I.e.… why do employees work safely?
What do they have in common?

When we attempt to motivate persons
Does motivation through avoidance really
work?
Do you work harder trying to achieve
something or trying to avoid something?
Scale and scope is important, but is known
NOT to be the most important
consideration, especially relating to
discretionary effort…

Typically focused on the person
Motivation by avoidance
Based on rules and regulations
Failure oriented
Management owned and driven
Traditional Safety
People work safely because they have
to…

Somewhat like a Merry‐go‐Round
And there’s
nothing wrong
with traditional
safety… if you
are happy with
the ride…
Traditional Safety

The Punishment Trap
•Punishment is Easy
•Punishment Gets Immediate Results
•Punishment Becomes an
Organizational Value
•Punishment Becomes a Reinforcer
for the Person Applying It
Punishment gets only avoidance behavior.
Punishment does not reinforce anything.
Causing bad behavior to go away doesn’t
mean that it will be replaced by the behavior
you want

WHY DO EMPLOYEES
WORK UNSAFELY?
Its all about the expected results of the
behavior
Always keep in mind that decisions are
motivated by a desire to achieve
something, not avoid something

The ABCs of Human
Behavior
A
B
C
Antecedent
Behavior
Consequence

ANTECEDENTS
Occur before behavior
Communicate
expectations
Provide instructions
Cue behavior

Antecedents in the workplace
not a strong influence behavior ~ 20%
have short term effects
work best when paired with consequences
are overused (ex: train and re-train)

Some examples of antecedents

BEHAVIOR
Undesirable Behavior
• job behavior which does not meet expectations
and requirements
• fail to comply with all safety rules
Desirable Behavior
• job behavior which meets expectations and
requirements
• complies with all safety rules all of the time

Consequences

CONSEQUENCES
Are either Positive or
Negative for the
behaviors
Predict the
probability of future
behavior
Occur after the
behavior
Are too powerful to
be left to chance
Not used often
enough

Learned History = Habit =
Behavior
Antecedent Behavior Consequence
A B C
Learned History
(Habit)

What is a Habit…
How does it work for us in
Safety?
How does it work against us?

A word about Training Vs Behavior

Why does the workplace allow unsafe
confined space entry?
Workplace Culture
A sense of production over safety
Each workplace is perfectly designed to get the
results it is currently getting
A belief that unsafe acts are the “fault” of the
individual (lack of a systems perspective)

WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD TO
IMPROVE CONFINED SPACE ENTRY?
Understand the results from employee
actions and CHANGE the consequences!!!
Move from a traditional safety culture of
punishment to one of positive
reinforcement and accomplishment
Always create situations where employees
are more likely to succeed doing CSE the
right way rather than to do it unsafely

Some Options for Improving CSE
Evaluate safety culture to see what the
perceptions of the workforce are… (This is a
KEY leading indicator)
Establish a FORMAL Behavioral Safety
Process
Create a Risk Assessment Group that is fully
Cross‐Functional

Remember….
The system of your workplace is perfectly
designed to get the results you are
currently getting
If you want different results, do something
different